Bad business as usual for legislators

Entire solar systems can fit into the gap between what some politicians say and what they actually end up doing. Take Wisconsin's own state legislators.

In January, legislators changed the rules to avoid the traditional fiasco of all-night sessions. But this week, the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee went pretty much through the night Tuesday night - with a couple of breaks - and finished its work about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday.

This was not the stated intent in January when Republican and Democrat leaders reached agreement on new rules for such sessions.

"We are going to stop all-night sessions; that is the reason we got together and made this agreement," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said at a joint news conference with Democrats at the time. Makes you wonder exactly how Vos defines the word "stop."

"We think it'll be the exception rather than the rule and maybe it won't happen at all this session," Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said of the overnight sessions. Odd how that exception came up so quickly.

Conducting the public's work while most of the public is sleeping doesn't lend itself to transparency or accountability. Nor does the middle of the night lend itself to sound judgment and good decision-making.

The committee made another return to bad form by loading up the budget with policy matters that have nothing to do with the budget, something Gov. Scott Walker once said he opposed. The items this time include allowing bail bondsmen, slowing lead paint lawsuits, defining the shores of Lake Michigan in downtown Milwaukee and kicking an investigative journalism center off the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

There's nothng new here, and that's the sad part. Looks like it's just business as usual for these legislators.